As temperatures rise, it's prime time to begin your garden

As temperatures warm up around the Two Virginias, and the chance of a late frost goes down, it's the perfect time to get started on your garden. WVVA talked to Kim Santolla, owner of Kimberly's Greenhouse, to get the inside scoop on what to start planting.

If you're new to gardening and want to get started, Kim recommended getting a soil test to determine the types of plants your soil can support, as different plants thrive in different soils. For example, blueberries grow best in acidic soils. If you don't want to go through the trouble of a soil test, organic matter, such as compost and manure, and sufficiently enrich most soils to support the majority of plants.

Once your garden is established, Kim told us that most plants are still fair game. In a typical spring, it would be too late to plant cold crops such as cabbage and broccoli. However, these plants are still viable given our recent chilly spring.

This is the prime time to start growing most vegetables, such as lettuce, carrots, spinach and beets. If you want to gamble that the area has experienced its last frost, tomatoes, peppers, and squash are also viable to start planting now. Long range forecast currently show warmer temperatures staying across the Two Virginias for the next week or so.

Kim expressed hesitancy to plant watermelon and cantaloupe, given the tender nature of those plants. Hold off until late May to early June to plant these varieties.

If you are interested in gardening but live in an apartment, fear not. Many planters and indoor varieties of vegetables exist for you to have your own indoor garden if you have a window that faces some sun.